Life in Northern Greece 07/2022

4^th March 2022. Salonika slopes downwards from the Seikh Sou Forest to the sea. About 40 years ago the “peripheric” ring road was built cutting through the forest. The areas that were city-side have since been built up. My mother-in-law’s home is near the forest, and I used to walk to the highest point, from which there is a great view of the city and the gulf. The other day I noticed a wildlife warning sign on the motorway. Rather than a deer, it was a graphic of a wild boar. As you drive westwards towards Ioannina, the signs usually show bears! After many years of ignoring the forest mainly because of weight and knee problems, I decided yesterday to climb up the track. Halfway up, I remembered the wild boar sign on the motorway. At the height of lockdown a boar was filmed wandering around the town centre – a bit like the lion in downtown New York at the beginning of the film, The Twelve Monkeys.

Moreover, the forest instils a lot of fear in people, still haunted by a number of murders committed in the 60s by “The Dragon of Seikh Sou”. There is a strong suspicion that the man who was executed for the crimes was innocent. The story can be found here: https://www.ethnos.gr/history/article/195740/ekteleitaiodrakostoyseixsoyegklhmathsastynomiaskaithsdikaiosynhssebarosenosathooygiatioitypseisstoixeiosanaxiomatikoysthsasfaleias

No dragons and no wild boar. In fact, I have never encountered wildlife in my climbs up the hill. The name of the forest is from Turkish meaning Sheikh’s Water. It also has an alternative Greek name that I had never heard of until I checked my sources a few minutes ago: Ο Κέδρινος Λόφος – The Cedar Hill.

From the life-giving air of the forest to a life-ending shooting. Although I always maintain Thessaloniki is a safe city by European standards, there has been another femicide. News from www.thessnews.gr popped up on my mobile two nights ago. The ex-partner of a 41-year-old woman shot her in the restaurant she owned before turning the gun on himself. The woman succumbed to her wounds in the Papageorgiou Hospital. Her daughter was also injured in the attack. The murderer was a martial arts expert and there was a history of harassment. Undoubtedly, one thing that needs to be done urgently is to beef up restraining orders against violent or deranged partners. Restraining orders need to carry a suspended sentence – one breach of the order and the perpetrator should be incarcerated immediately. The story is here: https://www.voria.gr/article/thessaloniki-ti-lei-i-elas-gia-ti-ginektonia-se-kafenio-stin-kato-toumpa In a more positive development, Media outlets are beginning to raise awareness, and last night there was a protest against femicide near the scene of the crime. There was also a shooting in the Peloponnese. A 60-year-old landlord murdered a couple and two of their three children. They were behind with the rent! Again, the killer has had an unhealthy relationship with guns. And again, someone has to deal with the lack of restraining orders and the failure to take guns from unstable people.

Still on the theme of untimely deaths, there were two suicides in town over the past week. Both jumped off balconies. Traditionally, Greece has had one of the lowest suicide rates in the world but since the crash, they are becoming more common.  At the beginning of the century suicides were at around 3 per 100,000. Since 2012 the suicide rate has hovered around 5.1/100,000 with men four times more likely to commit suicide than women.

As in other countries, fuel costs are increasing at a frightening rate – enough to drive anyone to suicide. If you ever drive in Greece, avoid BP. They are more expensive than all their competitors. Unleaded 95 is already over €2/litre and the 100 octane is around €2.30. If you can afford to drive a high-end car that runs on 100 octane, I suppose you don’t care about the cost of refuelling. However, for most people expensive fuel is a real burden, and fuel poverty is a recurring problem for Greeks. Prior to the current crisis, the last one I remember occurred during the premiership of George Papandreou. As in other countries, diesel for heating was significantly cheaper than road diesel. Greece being Greece, there was rampant cheating as people fuelled their cars with heating diesel.  The PASOK government “solved” this problem by raising the price of heating diesel to level it with road diesel. Result? Deaths. People started to burn wood or anything they could lay their hands on. Some died from inhaling toxic fumes, others burnt to death.

Monday, 7^th March was Clean Monday, the beginning of Orthodox Lent. Most people don’t eat meat on Clean Monday, and bakers bake a special bread called laghana (λαγάνα). I had a lovely time with the family.